Erin Foster, our Disney Food for Families columnist, has a few sweet bits of news about cupcake merchandise in Disney parks and resorts!

Remember those Vinylmation cupcake designs we showed you for the Vinylmation Bakery cupcakes? Well, now we get to show you the finished product — and a bunch of other cupcake craziness happening in Disney World!

Bakery Tinkerbell

Cupcakes are a craze, as we know, and while we love the edible Disney cupcakes, we like the inedible ones almost as much! Here’s a run-down of what’s happening for cupcake collectors in Disney World these days…

Cupcake Vinylmation About To Be Released

Planned to be a limited edition set, Vinylmation Bakery will now be offered as an open window box. Sweetness! 😉 While the box still recognizes it as a limited edition, there will be no production limit set for these cute Vinylmations.

A close up look at the figures and packaging shows the adorable cupcake-y Vinylmations. Yum!

Six Flavors

Packaging

The release date is set for June 3, 2011, at the D-Street stores in California and Florida. Created by Susan Foy, the figures have cupcake toppings:

Toppings

And underneath, reveal the true identity of the character:

Cupcake Mickey

The characters hidden beneath the frosting are Mickey, Minnie, Marie, the Cheshire Cat, and Tink. Yep — these will be some of the first vinyls that have removable pieces!!

Disney Princesses Cupcake Cookbook

Also seen on shelves at WDW resort merchandise locations is a children’s cookbook which gives cupcake recipes and decorating tips.

Disney Princess Cupcakes and More Cookbook

Cupcake recipe

The synergy between the food, publishing, and various merchandising areas at Disney is fascinating.

Disney Cupcake Clothes, Pins, and Jewelry

And in related news, the Disney cupcake fixation is showing up in even more merchandise areas as well.

Back in January, we reported on the introduction of a spongy, marshmallow-esque cupcake candy (formerly priced at $2.95, now marked down to $.99 each) and a line of children’s clothing featuring that cupcake candy as a graphic.

Cupcake Shaped Marshmallow Candy

Cupcake PJs

If you take a peek at the lower right illustration on the Vinylmation packaging, you’ll see it is the very same cupcake! Hiding under the Mickey-confetti sprinkles is Mickey himself – with a surprised look on his face and a purple smudge on his noggin. Ridiculously cute!

Vinylmation Bakery Confetti Mickey

Confetti Mickey cupcake

Also in shops is the same cupcake depicted on a set of Disney cupcake trading pins, and a girls’ necklace.

The necklace is a plain silver chain with five interchangeable cupcake charms, plus a Mickey-shaped lolly and and ice cream cone.

Cupcake necklace, $14.95

So what do you think folks? What’s your favorite cupcake creation? And are you like me and feeling kinda sad that there’s no Goofy cupcake Vinylmation to go along with the Goofy cupcake pin? Let us know in the comments below!